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Mike I walked in to see a doctor today, he is one of those ray kurzweil anti-aging live forever immortality type doctors – very expensive – probably one of the most expensive in this large city. Trained at a large US university and hospital from a midwestern town and a white male.

I asked him what he thought about the Obama healthcare plan, he freaked out, he said he won’t be seeing any OBAMA plan people and I said well I won’t be able to afford you then, all the obama plan doctors will have much cheaper rates than you in the future. He said Canadians and Europeans come to the USA because they can’t wait 6 months to see a doctor – this usually calm cool professional was very emotionally stressed about this topic.

A week ago I went to see an indian doctor from an indian university who did some residency in the USA – his whole outlook was different – he said he would be very happy to help poor people on the Obama healtchare plan that is coming.

I think your doctor is misunderstanding something, like many who are opposed to Obama’s plan or “national health care” in general. (That term is very misleading.)

Canada and other countries that are often held up as examples as to why the U.S. shouldn’t go down this path, actually have gov’t run health care. I think the idea in this country is for a universal payer for those who can’t afford insurance. That doesn’t portend the government actually running clinics and hospitals any more than it is right now.

What doctors don’t like, generally, is the increased paperwork and administration associated with getting paid. However, that has come about largely as a result of private HMO’s and other insurance plans that have also put limits on fees that doctors can charge for services. In addition, they have also been much more involved in decisions involving patient care, which doctors understandably object to. (One of the problems of having to run health care as a profitable business. Some things are just too expensive; even if it is a test or procedure that might save someone’s life.)

I had a long-time personal physician who was great and he knew me well and we had a great relationship. Then one day he said, “Mike, I’m going off insurance. I just can’t take the paperwork anymore.”

I was disappointed because I really liked him, but I had no choice, I had to change doctors because I use insurance and do not pay out of pocket. But I found another great doctor and all is well. So there you go!